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ARMAGH CITY |
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ARMAGH 's small size disappoints some people, and certainly the city
doesn't immediately present a greatly exciting prospect - but, rich in
history at least, Armagh and its surroundings have plenty to keep you
occupied for a day or two. The city offers cathedrals , museums and a
planetarium set in handsome Georgian streets, and two miles west is the
ancient site of once-grand Navan Fort . Armagh has been the site of the
Catholic primacy of all Ireland since St Patrick established his church
here, and has rather ambitiously adopted the title of the "Irish Rome"
for itself - like Rome, it's positioned among seven small hills.
Paradoxically, the city is also the seat of the Protestant Church of
Ireland's Archbishop of Armagh.
The new Ulsterbus station (tel 028/3752 2266) is on Lonsdale Road, just
north of the centre. An excellent way to get around is with the free
1940s-style bus which operates throughout July and August, stopping
outside all the city's attractions and the outlying Navan Centre (call
028/3752 9629 for times).
The City
The best way to get your bearings is to walk up the steps of St
Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral (Mon-Sat 10am-5pm), built on a
hillside just northwest of the Shambles Market. The view of the town
from here is impressive and you should be able to identify most of the
key sites spread out below. The cathedral's foundation stone was laid in
1840, but completion was delayed by the Famine and a subsequent lack of
funding. Whilst the Pope and local nobility chipped in, money was also
raised by public collections and raffles - one prize of a grandfather
clock has still not been claimed. On the outside the cathedral first
appears little different to many of its nineteenth-century Gothic
Revival contemporaries. But it is impressively large and airy; inside ,
as befits the seat of the Cardinal Archbishop, every inch of wall
glistens with mosaics , in colours ranging from marine- and sky-blue to
terracotta pinks and oranges. Other striking pieces include the
white-granite "pincer-claw" tabernacle holder , reflected in a highly
polished marble floor, and a statue of the Crucifixion which suggests
(deliberately or otherwise) the old city's division into Trians . Armagh
is known for its choral music, and the annual Charles Wood Summer School
(check with the tourist office for dates) is worth catching.
Heading south along Dawson Street you'll soon reach Cathedral Close and
St Patrick's Church of Ireland Cathedral (daily: April-Oct 10am-5pm;
Nov-March 10am-4pm; tours June-Aug Mon-Sat 11.30am & 2.30pm). This lays
claim to the summit of the principal hillock, Drum Saileach, where St
Patrick founded his first church in 445 AD. It commands a distinctive
Armagh view across to the other hills and down over the clutter of gable
walls and pitched roofing on its own slopes. A series of churches
occupied the site after 445 and, although the core of the present one is
medieval, a nineteenth-century restoration coated the thirteenth-century
outer walls in a sandstone plaster of which Thackeray remarked, "It is
as neat and trim as a lady's dressing room." Many of the ancient
decorations were removed, leaving the spartan interior you see today.
Just as you enter from the highly distinctive timber porch, you'll see a
few remnants of an eleventh-century Celtic cross and a startling statue
of Thomas Molyneux. Inside, high up, you should be able to sight the
medieval carved heads of men, women and monsters. One other unusual
feature is the tilt of the chancel, a medieval building practice meant
to represent the slumping head of the dying Christ. The chapter house
has a small collection of stone statues (mostly gathered from
elsewhere), the most noticeable of which are the Stone Age Tandragee
Idol and a Sheila-na-Gig with an ass's ears.
Just down the hill from the cathedral, the public library (known locally
as Robinson's; Mon-Fri 10am-1pm & 2-4pm; free but donations welcomed)
has, among many rare tomes, a first edition of Gulliver's Travels
annotated by Swift himself, and an early edition of Raleigh's History of
the World (1614), as well as a collection of engravings, including some
by Hogarth. The library was founded in 1771 by Archbishop Richard
Robinson, who was described as converting Armagh "from mud to stone" and
who is responsible for almost all the older buildings in Armagh - the
nearby infirmary was one of his too, though it's now occupied by the
university.
Cathedral Close leads downhill to the main shopping area, where an entry
leads into the narrow winding lane of McCrum's Court where the
rock-walled Hole in the Wall pub is well worth a visit. Walking back and
a little way north up English Street you'll come to St Patrick's Trian
Centre , an ambitious complex containing the tourist office and two
separate exhibitions. The first of these, peopled with figures
representing the Land of Lilliput and Jonathan Swift's connection with
Armagh, occupies the former Presbyterian Meeting House, which was partly
constructed from the ruined abbey of St Peter and St Paul - Swift is
reputed to have commented that the masons were "chipping the popery out
of the stones." The second installation, "The Armagh Story", is a
multimedia account of both the town's growth and the nature of belief
(opening times for both exhibitions: July & Aug Mon-Sat 10am-5.30pm, Sun
1-6pm; rest of year Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; joint ticket £3.75).
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